Michael Schaefer — Master of Red Flag DabblerNinjutsu

By Lordus Sapiens — Don’t claim to be qualified to teach shit I don’t know.

---

 

Years ago, I took some advanced classes at the university on screenwriting. At the time I had about two-and-a-half years of film school behind me (at a different university), and I figured I knew a lot, academically speaking. Certainly more than my classmates. Anyway, they were good classes, taught by some folks with some solid professional experience. At the end of the classes, a friend of mine and I were approached by another student who claimed he wanted to get together to continue work shopping writing projects. The guy was…odd. A little intellectually arrogant, we thought, and socially awkward…but nice enough, so we decided to try it out.

Oh boy…

 

(Scroll up for beginning of article)

Well, it turned out that what we had been invited to wasn’t a friendly writers group or work shop, it was a trial run for a series of “classes’ he was planning to advertise and lead…and take money for, of course.

It was excruciating.

Now, I knew a few things about this guy’s background, and though he was an older guy with some life experience, it didn’t include any professional experience in film making or writing.  He asked me what I thought of the “class” he’d tricked us into enduring and his plan to sell a screenwriting course in town. I told him, flat-out…

“You’re not qualified.”

He didn’t like that answer. Neither did his wife who, in spite of having less experience than him, was going to co-teach it with him.

I went on. “Look,” I said, ” I don’t want to insult you, but I’ve actually been to film school and have had my writing published professionally, and I’M not qualified. Sure, if all you want to do is host a writer’s group, go for it…but if you’re planning to charge money? I just don’t don’t think it would be right.”

My friend and I left him fuming on his doorstep. Over the next few months I saw his flyers around town…and then I never heard of him or his writing course again.

Some people just don’t get what being “qualified” is all about, and some of them — the nerdy, socially awkward, intellectually arrogant ones — don’t like being told they’re not qualified…especially when they’ve read all the books and dabbled just enough to fool themselves into thinking they know all there is to know about something.

And with that, I give you the latest ninja dumbshit to hit the scene, Michael Schaefer and Family Martial Arts of Round Rock, Texas.

What do you mean I’m “not qualified?”

I’m not quite sure what to make of “Sensei” Michael Schaefer, but he is without a doubt a martial arts fraud of epic proportions and I certainly know the personality type. Schaefer is a dabbler and a bullshitter who has pretty clearly developed quite a tale about himself and his skills and experience in martial arts…one that in spite of how much he clearly thinks of himself and his intellect, doesn’t hold up to even 30 seconds of monkey scrutiny. Of course, he has somehow run afoul of the fraud busting sites…for posting a number of horrible fake rank certificates online. Here’s a link to his school site and a link to the fraud’s blog and bio.

Now, go check out the bio. It’s long and tiresome, but it is instructive as an example of how NOT to construct a bullshit Bujinkan bio, and has some great examples of martial arts fraud and fake red flags.

Go ahead…I’ll wait.

Back already? Man, you’re  a fast reader!

Okay…my list of red flags from the bio:

Started at age 5? Became interested in “Ninja” a “few years later” (at age 8, we can assume?) thanks to an entry in “A dictionary of the Martial Arts?” This is some sort of credential or accomplishment? Really…I’m more impressed by Ron Collins, who started training at age 2.

Was unable to train due to scarcity of instructors (in Austin, Texas!?!?). Continued his “study” by reading Hayes’ books. Note that he shit-talks Hayes while referencing Ron Duncan and some Black Belt Magazine nonsense. Shit-talking people who have actually trained (no matter what you think of their reputations) is a repeating feature in the bio, since Schaefer is apparently above all of them.

Rambles on about Takamatsu and then Hatsumi (apparently still hasn’t done any training at this point). Furthers his “study” by looking into Robert Bussey (too far away, so still no actual training) and Ashida Kim (expresses Kim didn’t appeal to him philosophically, still no actual training). Apparently Schaefer is following a home study course of his own design.

Touts his personal training on dodging and evasion through elementary school (still no actual training) before — finally — being allowed to study formally in junior high under someone named “Master Yi.” Spins an elaborate tale concerning Yi — a Korean stylist — who supposedly was left at a martial arts temple at age 5 like a Taekwondo Moses where he studied a martial art derived from Shaolin Kung Fu before entering the South Korean Special Forces at 19 and being asked to adapt what he’d learned into something “more modern and easy to learn,” (this is an oft-told bullshit claim used by MANY fakes) which became “Tukong Moosul,” the style he taught (and which, surprise, surprise, resembled Taekwondo) at “Tukong Headquarters” (fakes always have their own organizations — okay, okay…I found the Wikipedia article on Wonik Yi that Schaefer copied and pasted from, so maybe YI is legit…maybe…) behind the local Carpet King. Of course, this is a common fraud-perfected device, and there is no evidence to support it.

Tells a dubious story about his junior high exploits (what serious, grown-up person cares about this stuff or thinks anyone would be impressed by this juvenile nonsense?). Curiously, he seems to think that junior high is divided into classes the same way as high school (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior), which is strange since “junior high” is grades 7-9 (three years) and in spite of personally having a background as a teacher, I’ve never heard of what he describes, which makes me wonder if he attended public school at all. Maybe it’s just an error and he meant just “high school.” Anyway, he apparently finally had some formal training starting in either 7th grade or 9th grade under a Korean teaching his own style (of TKD, I’d bet my life) out of a gym behind the local Carpet King.

Apparently, he spent most of his school career hiding out in the library but does recount amazing tales of warrior wailing and womping that he claims occurred during high school where he “finally willingly got into two fights.” WTF is a “boxer’s cross block?” Did he mean to say his opponent assume a boxer’s stance of some sort? Curiously, he never really describes his training with Yi – how long he trained at Yi’s “headquarters” behind the Carpet King, or what rank he achieved, if any. Of course, he doesn’t provide proof that he trained at all, and this lack of verification almost always means he got a green belt and quit after six months.

He goes on to talk about various classes and dojos, but nothing he says suggest it was ever anything more sustained than perhaps a for credit or beginners’ class in Aikido taught at a junior college, or if he ever achieved any rank at all, let alone black belt rank. It’s funny that one of his qualifying criteria for a Ninjutsu instructor seems to be how many Hayes and Hatsumi books they have read – he even goes as far as criticizing these instructors (whom I would assume were at least real black belts, unlike Schaefer) for “knowing less than” him – though (of course) he was never actually able to train under the instructors at “the Dojo” due to a dubious bit of dojo drama more at home in a movie than anything approaching real life.

Eventually he hears about Van Donk and his home study course (I love this pic…it says all that ever needs to be said about home study courses forever). Naturally, he feels compelled to express his opinion that Van Donk made mistakes in his material while offering a negative critique of Van Donk’s technique. He then complains about actually being expected to progress only one rank at a time and in compliance with a time in grade standard and refers to Van Donk’s requirement that he attend an event as a “deal breaker.” I guess perseverance isn’t an aspect of his approach to martial arts.

Appears to try to use an interview with Hatsumi as some sort of justification for not having standards for instructors. Sound a little self-serving to anyone?

Sometime after 2005, traveled to Japan. He rambles on and on about his time in Japan up to 2008 (when apparently, he had to return to the US due to a death in the family). Almost none of what he describes is relevant to martial arts until the end when he finally describes deciding not to train with Hatsumi because it was too expensive, and then training with a nidan “Hirai Sensei.” A time frame isn’t provided, so there’s no way to know just how much he trained with Hirai, and he has no proof (though he managed to find the time to photograph every fucking toilet in Japan). He does go to great pains to brag about himself and make sure we know that he was apparently more highly skilled than any of the shodans in Hirai’s group…and then tells a sob story about Hirai not awarding him a promised black belt before he left Japan.

Returned to Japan sometime around 2010. Apparently didn’t train, but he takes the time to talk about something Hatsumi said about not choosing a successor. Apparently, more self-serving nonsense meant to justify not seeking out qualified instruction.

Returned to the US sometime after 2011. Rather than seeking out a martial arts instructor, he started trying to put together a training group practicing at various parks and open spaces…and then tells a completely bullshit story about (out of the blue) receiving Menkyo from the Bujinkan with no letter of explanation. Sorry…this didn’t happen, no fucking way, and it’s worth noting that he misspells Menkyo.

Concludes with a rant concerning the Bujinkan conspiracy to call him out as a fake, whining like a little bitch and going as far as to drop a challenge to anyone who wants to “test their assumptions.”

Okay…so what does it all mean?

Schaefer is clearly what I would call a martial arts dabbler. One of those guys who likes the books and the trappings and the bullshit, but never really had a taste for real training, especially under an instructor. Some of these guys will be green belts in a half dozen martial arts and will try to convince you that all this dabbling somehow makes them more qualified than a real black belt (they will also usually say they don’t care about belts, which is strange because all those low-rank colored belts seem to matter to them a lot when you meet them).

Most dabblers eventually give it up and only serve to make real martial artists cringe when they open their mouths to pontificate on everything they know about martial arts based on their many forays into yellow and green belt mastery (thus the Master Ken quote: “I have studied in over three dozen martial arts facilities and in over seventeen years not one of them has been able to contain me.”).

SOME dabblers — at times intellectually arrogant while always obsessed — however, never do and eventually convince themselves (and the unwary) that they are either equal or superior to people who have actually dedicated themselves to training and truly have earned black belt rank and status as instructors.  Schaefer is one of the latter, and his bio and attempts to position himself as an instructor and run a school, remarkably following the same pattern as people like Ron Collins, Bryce Dallas (ESPECIALLY Bryce Dallas — shown here from his pictorial in MAN TITTIES magazine), Dan Harmon, Frank Dux, Ashida Kim and other fakes.

Here’s what I actually get from his bio.

He has a lifelong — probably unhealthy — obsession with reading about Ninjutsu that he has fooled himself (combined with purchased at home “instruction”) into thinking translates into skill and experience.

In his entire life he has likely only received formal instruction from three instructors in any form of martial art: Yi, some Aikido instructor he doesn’t name, and Hirai. If he had more, believe me, he would list them, and it’s very telling that he doesn’t mention the ranks he was awarded by these instructors, which means either they were very low or he didn’t earn rank at all. Funny…only one of these three instructors was Ninjutsu, and that was for only two years max, so any claim to being qualified to teach Ninjutsu is complete and utter crap.

His entire formal training over his lifetime likely does not exceed two or three years. The Aikido class was at a community college, so it was probably a few months. I’m assuming he followed the Taekwondo yellow or green belt and out pattern at Yi’s (just like Ashida Kim), and his training with Hirai in Japan, based on the bio, was likely a year or less (if it happened at all, which I doubt — how much you want to bet if I spend an hour online I’ll find his picture on some obscure kendo web site in Germany or something). TWO YEARS is generous, to be honest, yet Schaefer CLAIMS 35 years of experience on his web sites.

Even his claim of spending 10 years in Japan appears to be bullshit (2005 to 2008 + 2010 to 2011 = 4 years), unless I just missed the six years he spent at the secret Ninja Kung Fu and Aikido-Shaolin-Taekwondo temple hidden in the mountains of Iga Province.

So simple analysis shows his martial arts background is complete crap. Then there’s the matter of the certificates. I could go on and on about how they have been examined by an expert who is not only a Bujinkan master with contacts at Bujinkan, but also fluent in Japanese who VERIFIABLY lived in Japan for over 15 years, but the STORY Schaefer wants people to believe is so obviously made up, fantasy land BULLSHIT. It’s actually embarrassing that a grown man approaching 50 would try to pass this off as even remotely plausible.

Schaefer is a fake, and not even a good one…actually, he’s one of the worst I’ve ever seen.

Even worse than Bohdi Sanders.

“But what’s the harm,” you  might ask?

Good question. To me, he looks like a guy who was a martial arts dweeb as a kid, who dabbled over the years, and who now for some reason feels the need to set himself up as a ninja teacher to fill some black hole in his soul. Is he a bad guy? Maybe not. While he’s probably not dumb, he’s got an arrogant know-it-all streak to go with the under-nourished self-esteem that undermines his intellect, which in martial arts too often is a bad combination that usually leads to some sort of abuse, sexual impropriety, or cult-ish behavior (i.e. check out Bryce Dallas and Dan Harmon, may they both roast on spits in hell with apples in their mouths).

But what’s wrong with a martial arts dabbler wanting to share what he knows?

Maybe nothing (aside from the fact that they simply aren’t qualified — sorry, but if you’ve never earned a black belt, you don’t have a clue as to what it takes to train someone to black belt, so you’re simply not fucking qualified), but this guy isn’t just running a small training group for himself and other dabblers…he’s setting himself up as some sort of half-assed ninja master and running a school that teaches kids, on top of which he’s perfectly comfortable creating a fake martial arts bio, lying bout his experience and training, and faking credentials.

It’s worth noting that he follows the fraud template in other ways that I’m too tired to bother exploring…lets just call it fraud guru wellness entrepreneurship.  Just google him and you’ll see what I mean. Deep down, he’s an unethical prick — why are so many of these hippy-dippy, holistic, oriental medicine, acupuncture bamboo fuckers like this, it seems? — and all this harsh scrutiny is well-deserved.

Michael Schaefer (I know you’re reading this)…

ETHICS MATTER, integrity matters. Quit. Quit now. How many Hayes and Hatsumi books you’ve read, or Van Donk tapes you’ve critiqued and found lacking, doesn’t matter…

YOU’RE NOT QUALIFIED!

Quit now before whatever it is in your black id that convinced you it was okay to perpetrate this fraud talks you into doing something else…

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Apparently Schaefer has authored a book. The preview probably will tell you all you ever needed to know…I wouldn’t normally pimp his book, but it’s so bad I’m not worried anyone will actually buy it…

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Hmmm…

I decided to include Schaefer’s bio below just in case he decides to delete it (a common fraud reaction to being exposed that he has already exhibited):

 

A Warrior’s Long Journey

(bio of fake master Michael Schaefer)

This is the story of one warrior’s journey. It’s probably not unique but it’s my story.

At the age of five I took an interest in martial arts. A few years later in the elementary library I came across an Encyclopedia/Dictionary of Martial Arts. A particular entry that caught my eye was for Ninja.

The Ninja were described as legendary warriors that were active from Japan’s feudal period that were masters of stealth and disguise and practiced an art called Ninjutsu (art or techniques for subtlety, patience, or stealth). They could use any type of weapon , knew how to strike the body’s vital area’s and pressure points to easily defeat an opponent, were familiar with natural medicines to heal themselves and poisons to disable or kill an enemy. They used gadgets like James Bond and were said to have a type of magic called Kuji. So that makes science, medicine, herbal medicine, and martial arts both armed and unarmed as areas for study.

This completely peaked my interest but naturally there wasn’t anyone teaching Ninjutsu classes in the area around Austin, Texas at that time (early 80’s). Fortunately I soon came across some books entitled “Ninja” by Stephen K. Hayes. He was the first American and one of the first Non-Japanese to have received a Shidoshi (teacher of warrior ways) license in the Togakure style of Ninjutsu/Ninpo from a Soke (headmaster/head of family) named Masaaki Hatsumi, who had named his dojo (training hall) organization Bu Jin Kan (literally hall or library of the war(rior) god(s). Sensei Hayes had created his own “Shadows of Iga Ninja Society” to create training opportunities in America.

(* I later learned that a gentleman by the name of Ronald Duncan was the first American to be teaching Ninjutsu classes. Unfortunately got on the bad side of the head of “Black Belt Magazine”. When asked where he had learned it and who his master was, Dr. Duncan replied that it was a secret and no one had a right to that information. Later when Sensei Hayes came on the scene with signed and stamped certificates, and was willing to cooperate with their photographers, “Black Belt Magazine” made him famous instead.)

In his books, Sensei Hayes says that mountain mystics and ascetics (shugenja/yamabushi practicing a system of personal cultivation developed by En No Gyoja), Taoist hermits seeking immortality (Sennin) and generals skilled in Sun Tzu’s art of war that had survived on the losing sides of wars in China, had gathered in the Iga and Koga regions of Japan and pooled their skills to create a total system of survival that became Ninjutsu. Their General list of skills included : Ki Ai Jutsu (harmonizing energy), Tai Jutsu (body/physical skills), Ken Po (sword principles) Yari Jutsu (spear or lance fighting), Shuriken Jutsu (throwing blades), Ka Jutsu (use of fire & explosives), Yu Gei (Cultural crafts), and Kyo Mon (practical experience, and lessons, influenced in part by native Japanese Shinto). There was also horse riding for transportation, archery, hypnotism, psychology, codes & ciphers, cartography, meteorology, and yoga like exercises to maximize flexibility and endurance. (lots more to study) The ninja existed as a counter culture to the Samurai (militant “servants” to the emperor who valued honor, or more specifically reputation, more than life), though some ninja were samurai and many ninja disguised themselves as samurai.

The kuji magic that was attributed to them was based largely on meditative rituals from Mikkyo (the secret teaching of esoteric Buddhism which came into Japan from China and Tibet) to focus the powers of the mind, strengthen the body, and interact with the flow of events. In order to facilitate training in this skill, each dojo was supposed to copies of the Taizokai and Kongokai mandalas (used in esoteric schools of Buddhism).

When I read Soke Hatsumi’s books, there was even more information on postures and techniques, photographs of assorted ninja tools, weapons, and scrolls. It turned out that he had inherited the headmaster title for a total of nine family styles or Ryu Ha (Togakure Ryu, Kumogakure Ryu, Gyokko Ryu, Koto Ryu, Gikan Ryu, Gyokushin Ryu, Kuki Shinden Ryu, Shinden Fudo Ryu, and Takagi Yoshin Ryu) of ancient martial arts from a man named Toshitsugu Takamatsu, who had actively worked undercover in China around World War II and had picked up the nickname Mongolian Tiger after studying Mongolian kickboxing on the mainland.  Soke Takamatsu had been taught Togakure Ryu Ninjutsu and a several other styles by his grandfather/uncle: Shinryuken Masamitsu Toda, and later learned Kuki Shinden Ryu from a security guard working in his family’s match factory: Takakage Matsutaro Ishitani, and another family friend, Akimoto Fumio, taught him Gikan Ryu. These three men didn’t have any other willing heirs and so passed on their family tradition to the young Takamatsu. Soke Takamatsu would later break with tradition and started teaching the public. His last student Masaaki Hatsumi eventually broke further with tradition and started teaching foreigners as well. Among the Takamatsu stories I came across was one where the main Kuki family had lost or damaged their Densho (technique scroll/book). Per their request he made a copy from the one that he had inherited but, offended that they hadn’t treasured it well enough to keep it safe; much less memorize it, he left out some of the details and intricate explanatory notes. (Much later I would read an article about a student of Soke Hatsumi that was a private investigator interviewing the head of the Kuki family about the re-writing. They denied it had happened but couldn’t explain how the name seal of Soke Takamatsu had been stamped on their scroll. Itazura (mischief) perhaps?)

I came across a few articles about a Ninja training camp run by someone named Robert Bussey but those were out-of-state. There were also books on Ninjutsu by an author known as Ashida Kim. Sensei Kim’s books focused more on psychological advantages and dirty tricks, with fewer training exercises and far less philosophy. These didn’t appeal as well to me despite having useful information. (Later some articles came out about his real name and how he was supposedly taught by a Japanese neighbor who passed away without leaving him a menkyo to authorize teaching. I also came across a book describing one of his training camps from the perspective of a private investigator, who claimed to have been hired by a Japanese man and an American that were running a rival Ninja Martial Arts organization.

The Leander school system in those days was a little bit rough, with some of the boys fighting for the heck of it any time a teacher wasn’t looking, trying to establish a pecking order. Transferring into Faubion Elementary in the middle of a semester with strict orders from home not to get into any fights, I had ample opportunity to work on my dodging and evasion skills for most of my primary school career. Once I got into Junior High, my family finally gave in and let me take some formal martial arts training from Master Yi.

Grand-master Wonik Yi was left with Dae Yeon Sa martial arts temple at the age of five and lived there until the age of nineteen when he entered the South Korean Special Forces. He was asked by his superiors to adapt the temple martial arts, derived from Shaolin Kungfu, into something more modern and easy to learn. The new style was called Tukong Moosul (Teuk Gong Moo Sool), and bears similarities to Shaolin Kungfu and Korean Tae Kwon Do.

Some of the early lessons at the Tukong Headquarters off 183, behind Carpet King, included pushing energy through your feet to ground yourself and strengthen your stance, and directing your weight (center of balance) downward if someone is trying to lift you to make yourself feel heavier. This came in handy since as a freshman at Leander Junior High, a clerical error assigned me to the senior boys p.e. class.

One day when the coach had the class lined up near the dumpsters, he was called away. Two of my classmates got the idea that they had to initiate me by throwing me into the dumpster. They couldn’t budge me. A third tried to pick up my feet, but I just widened my stance. When a fourth got involved they were able to get me off of my feet, but I sank my weight and they couldn’t lift me. Once a fifth grabbed my waist by the belt loop they were barely able to drag me a foot at a time.

About that time, someone yelled that the coach was coming back, so they dropped me and everyone got back in their lines. After a few minutes, the last one to join in observed that the coach wasn’t coming and suggested they try again with the whole class. In response to that the first two replied: “Are you nuts?” “We could barely move him with five of us. What if he actually fights back this time?”.

A few feats of strength like that reduced the number of people that challenged me, but there were still plenty that wanted to try their luck, so I continued to get plenty of practice on evasion, dodging and blocking. I spent recess in the library reading books on anatomy, herbology, aviation and aeronautics, western magic traditions, myths and legends, firework chemistry, and the Japanese and Korean languages. I also bought some information from the S.P.C. USA company on “Chi power” and using acupressure for defense and healing injuries. In electives I did well in the chemistry, electronics, homemaking, horticulture, and various other subjects related to my martial arts and ninja obsession.

In my junior year at Leander High School, I finally willing got into two fights. One was with the most annoying guy in the Principles of Technology 101 class. The teacher had warned the whole class the day before to knock off the hazing or the guy that decked them wasn’t going to be the one going to the office. The next day, as the teacher was helping another student, this guy was bopping me on the head with a heavy yardstick as he went down the aisles between the desks. I waited until he was on the open side of the desk and done it a third time before I stood up and took my stance, left fist forward and right fist tucked under the armpit with the thumb side rotated up to the outside. As I moved forward he went into a boxers cross-block with his fist partially covering his face. His movements and reactions were so slow (to me) I could easily have gone over or under his guard, but chose instead to test the strength of his guard by punching it square in the center. This drove his fist into his own eye and sent him flying back about a dozen feet or so into the wall beside the chalk board. As he got up and came charging towards me I was getting ready to put a side kick into the middle of his lower abdomen, but the teacher stepped in and stopped it. Another student on the other side of the classroom couldn’t even tell that it was my rear hand I punched with and thought I had just lunged through. The one I punched skipped the next day, reportedly with a bad black eye, and brought four other guys after school to corner me at my locker. I let him have one punch which jammed his knuckles against my cheek bone and left him holding his fist. I didn’t even get a black eye, just some barely noticeable puffiness that disappeared in half an hour with a little acupressure.

The next one was against the guy who had the reputation of being the toughest and scariest fighter in the school. The story was that he had beaten a kids head against a locker until at least the skin on the skull had split. He took offense to something I said in class and caught up to me between the portables and the main building insisting on a fight and not taking no for an answer. I said fine and proceeded to take off my heavy backpack and coat while dodging his punches. As soon as I had the coat off and was ready, he got spooked and ran inside. The next day he joined the ROTC program and decided to go into the Marines after high school. During my senior year (class of ’93, Wild and Free), my attitude toward the guys that still wanted to harass me was “bring it on!”, and yet strangely, no one did. I graduated as a member of the Honor Society and had passed a certification exam as an Associate level electronics technician with ISCET.

I worked at some restaurants and tech companies while going to Austin Community College and took classes in Japanese, programing, chemistry, Aikido, Tai Chi Chuan, and Yoga along with the usual basics. I found a company called “The Dojo” in the village shopping center that leased space to martial arts instructors. Among those that were listed on the schedule were instructors from the Bujinkan Dojo and Kasumi An Ninpo (set up by Stephen Hayes as a play on his name as translated into Japanese, kasumi=haze or smog).

Neither instructor had read half of the books by Soke Hatsumi or Sensei Hayes that I had, and were just following a manual that included some exercises and Kihon Happo (fundamental eight principles) forms. By this point dial-up internet was fairly cheaply accessible and there were plenty of Bujinkan forums half filled with people flaming each other’s instructors and inter dojo politics about which instructor had broken off from the Bujinkan and why, with plenty of gossip about the differences between the different styles since Soke Hatsumi had been doing a different theme for each year’s Tai Kai(gathering) as he reviewed his inherited scrolls, so having an instructor who knew less than I did set off a few alarm bells even if they did have legitimate rank.

Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I was considering training under them anyway until an incident happened that shut “The Dojo” down. A gentleman who had learned Capoeira down in Brazil wanted to teach a class there and was turned down. The theme of a movie that had recently come out, Capoeira was introduced to Brazil by someone who had combined Shaolin Kungfu with African dance techniques. This was taught to the slaves to end the Brazilian slave trade.

I don’t know the reason for the refusal. Maybe the schedule was full or the owner didn’t know the Asian connection since his company was Japanese/Asian themed. The local African-American Association, including a friend of mine from the Aikido class at Austin Community College, against the wishes of the instructor that was turned down, had assumed racism as a motivation and pursued an injunction against the owner of “The Dojo”. The owner, representing himself without a lawyer, chose to close his business permanently rather than be told how to run it.

I later learned about a couple of small dojo groups in east Austin and Liberty Hill, driving time about an hour to either of them. Both were at Shodan rank (first degree black belt, according to what I had read from Soke Hatsumi and Sensei Hayes; 2nd degree/Nidan is an assistant instructor; fifth degree/Godan is instructor rank; and 10th degree/Judan is full rank), and both had some significant personality issues. One voiced some violent fantasy he had, and the other would tell students to play with variations on a technique; only to get annoyed that they weren’t doing exactly the original technique. I also heard about a full rank instructor (Shihan Shidoshi) that had a group in south Austin, ~1.5-2 hours driving time, that emphasized veganism and only showed up to teach the class once every month or two. Deal-breakers all around for me.

Around this time I enrolled into a massage therapy training program and got my Texas Massage Therapist license. I worked as a massage therapist for a while, worked for a temporary work agency for a while engineering fiber optic cable routes; half a year of which was in New Mexico. That was when I found out about two Oriental Medicine colleges, teaching Master’s degree programs, located in Austin, Texas.

One was more eclectic, but it had required electives that made the program more expensive. Both had a minimum of college credits required before entry, so I took classes at Cisco College out of Cisco and Eastland, Texas, and worked as a massage therapist part time. I picked up a few books on Oriental Medicine and Acupuncture and practiced needling techniques on myself using cactus quills. I also came across Shihan Shidoshi (master instructor) Richard Van Donk and his Ninjutsu Black Belt Home Study Course about this time.  It comes with a training manual and ten videos. There were a number of mistakes in the manual and the first few videos that were later corrected in the later videos, and his movements were very stiff, but whatever. He also had a number of other books and videos, including new ones from Soke Hatsumi.

I signed up with the Texas College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Fall of 2002 and, as per the college’s recommendation, was taking about 15 semester hours per trimester. We had to study the names; locations; functions; and the needling angle & depth for ~400 acupuncture points (I made a point to write down the Chinese characters for the names as well), Chinese medical terminology, Oriental medicine theory, meridian theory, ~400 herbs and medicinal substances, ~300 medicinal formulas/recipes, Chinese traditional medical classic texts(Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic, Cold Damage Treatise, Warm Disease School, Prescriptions from the Golden Chamber), Tai Chi & medical Chi Gong, Chinese medicine in obstetrics and gynecology, anatomy & physiology, Western medical terminology, patho-physiology, Western medical pharmacology, lab tests (blood tests, x-rays, urinalysis, etc), nutrition and diet, biology, microbiology, biochemistry, physics, clean needle technique, medical practice management, clinical observation, clinical practice, business administration, physical assessment, and case management.

I tried to get some of my classmates to help with the Bujinkan training course with limited success. The limits of one Kyu (class rank) at a time and three months in between tests was one issue, but being required to travel to his California dojo or one of his events, which were never in Texas, was getting to be a deal breaker.

That was when I came across an interview with Soke Hatsumi where the interviewer was asking his thoughts about all the people who were claiming to have teacher and master level credentials signed by him. He said that for a while, the world demand for instructors was so great that he had let several people obtain licenses who weren’t qualified and there may be a few with fake or copied licenses and a picture taken with him. He didn’t feel any guilt or obligation to do anything about it because as far as he was concerned, all of the licenses were invalid unless they had training with him for the last year, because they don’t know what he is currently teaching and he really didn’t know what he was doing in the early years. Ouch! That’s a bit of an insult to his former students that don’t have the money or time to make that trip on a regular basis. The interviewer also asked him what he would do if his menkyo from Soke Takamatsu were lost or destroyed? His reply was that he would re-write them form memory on his own authority and he wasn’t worried about people calling that forgery.

I graduated in Summer of 2005 with a Master’s degree in Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine, and a license to practice acupuncture in the state of Texas. Under the rationale that if I started a practice right away, I would be lucky to get a month a time off to visit Japan and learn what I needed to there, I saved up my money from a full time massage job for a few months and went straight to Japan. I would have gone with the JET program, but the timing on the departure would have been before I finished the Master’s degree or after a year of friends and relatives trying to weaken my resolve.

I had found a place to stay northwest of Tokyo in Urawa of Saitama Prefecture. Ray (as in beam of light) Eikaiwa (English conversation) Club, has enough bedrooms for about six foreigners to stay, with access to a kitchen; restroom; and shower, in exchange for helping the Japanese club members with English conversation practice. When I first got to the Tokyo/Narita airport, I felt fine, and was impressed by the size of the bamboo forest on the train ride from Narita to Tokyo. Some of the poles looked thick enough to make bathtubs out of them. A lot of the trains have women only cars so they can stay away from senile old gropers.

 

Once I got to Urawa on the other hand, it was getting dark and the fatigue was catching up. Looking for the Eikaiwa Club, checking the map, and asking for directions (my Japanese reading ability was a little better than third grade level at this point thanks to the Nelson Kanji Dictionary and the Toyo kanji list at the back.) , I still think I must have walked past it about three times before the owner, Mister Shimada, came driving by on his way home and spotted me.  I slept very soundly that night and probably snored like a chain saw from the fatigue.

The next day I started organizing my luggage and learning the ropes of Ray Eikaiwa Club. At the request of Mr. Shimada, I spent the better part of a week cleaning and organizing the kitchen. Some of the other foreigners had made a thick, greasy mess of the sinks, and everything else before departing to parts unknown. I found a trail of black stuff that I tracked up through the cabinet to the dry, shriveled remains of a banana.

After that was buying a local map and an electronic dictionary on clearance for 5,000 yen (~$50 US), some of the other Americans were incredulous because the operating system was entirely in Japanese. After translating the directions with my dictionaries, this was very convenient as it had about 25 cross referenced dictionaries stored inside. We were using the internet at a local McDonalds where I would often get into conversations with the locals, often with them speaking English and me speaking Japanese. A few of the other foreigners thought that was just too weird but we responded, “So what? It’s an interesting conversation!”. I got into a lot of interesting conversations while I was in Japan. 😉

I picked up a few manga to help me work on translations and improve my vocabulary. “Yakitate Japan! ” is a manga that’s all about bread making. This was a bit of a challenge with lot’s of slang and technical terms. “Kekkaishi” is about a pair of rival exorcist families protecting a particular sacred ground. Old Japanese and modern slang with a lot of esoteric Buddhist terminology for a different type of challenge. Translating a page at a time and practicing the pronunciation until I could say and understand them at conversational speeds took a few weeks. Getting my ears fast enough to understand the fast paced, run-on sentences used by the teens and young adults of Tokyo was an entirely different challenge. If I got stuck on a word, I missed the rest of the sentence, and they didn’t want to repeat it. If I managed to listen to the end, I had forgotten the first part. I eventually got in the habit of forming the sentence in my head as I read or listened and thinking of the different grammatical patterns like melodies of different songs. This was a lot smoother than the clunky textbook method of reversing the whole sentence, or at least the sentence object and verb, after reading or listening to the whole thing.

It was a few days after I got there when I experienced my first earthquake. At first it sounded like a big vehicle was moving by. Then the far wall started to vibrate. The vibration started moving along the side walls in my direction, so I set one forward and one foot back at an angle for a sensory reference. As it got to my side of the room it felt like a wave rolling under my feet. It moved on through, vibrating the wall behind me for a bit before moving on down the road, sounding like a big vehicle fading in the distance. I mentioned this to Mr Shimada and he figured I was the only one to have experienced it that way. Then a few weeks later after a trip to Tokyo, he mentioned experiencing an earthquake while walking outside. Paying close attention to this one after my description, and he noticed that same weird rolling sensation as it passed. While I was staying in Urawa, we had about one earthquake each month. Some of them were so soft it didn’t even vibrate the open window and you could easily sleep through half of them.

Next on the agenda was reading the local directory guides for famous places and riding my bicycle all over Saitama. I had brought a 21 (7×3) speed Dahon Esspresso (Mountain/Highway) folding bicycle with me as one of my checked baggage items. At Mr Shimada’s suggestion, I picked up a bike lock to go through the spokes. Apparently there is a problem across Japan of people “borrowing” unlocked bicycles near train stations and accidentally forgetting to return them. It’s a good idea to register your bicycle at the local prefectural office or city office, just in case, and if you decide to give or sell your bike to someone else, make sure to go down with them to that same office transfer the ownership.

At this point in my life I was mostly a lacto-ovo-vegetarian (plant products, milk, and eggs on the menu) and avoiding meats for the most part. That being said I had to try the local specialty for Urawa, Unagi-Don. Unagi-Don is barbecued eel over rice with grilling/BBQ sauce. And then there were various Wagashi (Japanese sweets) shops with confections made from sweetened rice flour dough and natural flavorings and colorings, sculpted to look like seasonal ornaments.

For those that don’t know, Christmas is an important commercial and romantic holiday in Japan.

   

Valentines is a little different in Japan. The local tradition is that the girls give the guys chocolates and the size and work that goes into it reflect her feelings. Small and simple Giri  Choko (duty chocolate ~5 yen) for everyone she know, medium Tomo (friend/companion ~50-500 yen) choko, and Hon Mono (real thing ~2000-10000+) Choko for lovers. The guys are expected to reciprocate a month later on white day when the price jumps up around four times what the women paid for their chocolate. Unfortunately a lot of people have stopped cooperating with this commercialized price hike, and the tradition may be dying out.

Almost wherever you go in Japan, there are street side vending machines for tea, coffee, soft drinks, even cigarettes and alcohol (most minors leave the later two alone). Some of the vending machines even have games and contests that can interact with your smartphone, depending on the brand.

That reminds me, if you have the option for international calling on your phone plan, check to see if it’s compatible with Japan before you leave. Now that Apple and Android phones have invaded Japan it should be okay, but you may need a new SIM card to access the local network.

Over the Kawagoe warehouse district, also known as little Edo since most of the buildings in the area were built during that period, Satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potato) candy and some designer sweets are the specialties.

Further north in Ogawa (little river) they are known for their Washi (traditional Japanese paper). There is a small factory beside the river that did tours a few times each month, and has areas that were open to the public outside of tour days. A little ways down the street there is a little store that sells Washi, mostly in bulk to other companies, but also to the public in smaller quantities. Their two main types were Haku Un (white cloud), which is as thin as tissue paper and a bit stronger, and Un Ryu (cloud dragon), which is thicker; has silk threads impressed into one side; and a longer fiber length making it much stronger. A lot of the buildings in Ogawa have these blue, glazed tiles on their roofs. It’s a local tradition thought to bring good luck.

Even Further to the northeast are several small towns known for their Aizome, fabric that has been dyed in fermented indigo water. It’s said that Aizome doesn’t fade as it’s washed, but instead develops a richer, creamier color.

Down south, in Saeyama, they produce a tea (cha) listed as one of the top three in Japan. Saeyama cha has the least bitterness and even a hint of sweet in the leaves. Before Gen Mai Cha (tea with roasted brown rice) became popular, Saeyama was the one you wanted to give children and foreigners. There are many other areas that I didn’t see, but these are the ones that stood out to me.

Occasionally I would run an errand in Tokyo with it’s intricate train and subway system.

 

I even stopped by the Bujinkan Hombu Dojo and was considering taking some classes with Soke Hatsumi directly until I found out it was going to be 10,000 yen (~$100.00) per class! I needed a good source of income before I could handle that.

During this time I was looking for a job that would sponsor a work visa. Americans, and citizens of other countries with appropriate reciprocal treaties with Japan, can enter the country with just a passport, that will be valid for the entire length of their stay, and automatically get a tourist visa/residence status for 90 days. You can renew this at least once while in country at your local immigration office, or most foreigner make a quick trip to Korea whenever their current visa is about to expire. You are not legally allowed to work on a tourist visa, but many foreigners do through the local underground economy (especially English teachers), so the immigration personnel at the airport felt it necessary to tell me several times not to try working on a tourist visa (I made the rookie mistake of honestly putting on the customs form that one of my reasons for visiting was to find work that would sponsor a working visa.).

I took the bullet train down to Nagoya for a few interviews with English teaching companies.

 

I was surprised to find a Hard Rock Cafe right next to a SEGA store.

Similarly it was interesting to find tea and instant granule versions of Oriental medicine remedies at every corner pharmacy.

 

The Nagoya job didn’t work out. Apparently for many of the English conversation companies, Having a high Japanese level and a knowledge and appreciation Japanese culture was a demerit. They wanted student to catch a glimpse of pure Western culture. So the next opportunity was in Awaji Island with a company known as ASTEP English, based out of Sumoto City. After a short interview in English with the boss and in Japanese his daughter (most of the parents and elementary teachers in Awaji didn’t speak much English, so someone who could communicate in Japanese was required since a lot of the work was going to be in elementary schools), I bought a ticket on a night bus that dropped me off in Osaka, and took the first train into Sannomiya Town where his daughter picked me up in her car. Awaji is one of the few developed areas of Japan that can’t be reached by train. On the north side it is attached by the toll road going over the Akashi bridge, which was the longest suspension bridge going over water in the world. Lighting up in rainbow colors at night, the Akashi bridge was actually featured in a Popular Science magazine I read once.

You can also take a ferry from a few ports to near (Osaka, Kobe, Shikoku) and far (Oita in Kyushu) destinations.

Near the Naruto bridge is is the port town of Fukura. You can take a tour boat to see the whirlpools and pick up some local history too. Afterward you can buy some seafood from the local market.

Sumoto City is an old castle town. Whenever a Daimyo (baron, warlord) from the south or west wanted to be the Dai Shogun (grand general, often shortened to shogun), in order to reach the emperor in Kyoto without being flanked by a rival, it was important for them to secure the island of Awaji and the nearby ports in Shikoku, Chukoku, and Osaka. After decades of being stomped on by outsider samurai, an expert in castle design built an impressive castle. Unfortunately it was torn down after unification and only a mock-up of the center tower remains.

From the castle you can look down on a pond in the courtyard on one side and the port city of Sumoto on the other. The roof-tiles in Sumoto are mostly grey and the earthen or concrete walls look whitewashed with a thin layer of plaster.

Among the businesses in town is Kannebo, a fairly big name in the Japanese cosmetics and pharmacy industry.

It was still Winter (February) at this point and since the Japanese school year starts in Spring, and the elementary schools don’t need the English teachers for the first few weeks anyway, it was going to be about another month before I was working, the boss had me stay at the home of a friend of his from church (Nakazawa San) whose wife (Gloria San) was also working at ASTEP. Apparently there are quite a few Mormons and people from the Philipines on Awaji Island.

My first night there, I woke up to quiet  sounds coming from outside. Looking out the window, there were a pair of Tanuki (badgers or racoon-dogs) going up and down the hill behind the house, circling each other.  Going up and down the hill they spread out low and crawled and when making the turn they brought their legs closer together and walked at twice the height. Apparently that’s a very rare sight!

Most Japanese kitchens don’t have Western style ovens with stoves on top. There’s not even a space for them! Instead they have short gas or electric range tops that may have a little fish roasting chamber as an extra feature.

Thanks to having a Master’s degree in Oriental Medicine, I was able to get a Specialist in Humanities/International Services Visa instead of the usual Instructor’s Visa. Basically I could do any job I was qualified for in the US, though additional training/licensing might be necessary, depending on local regulations. All that was left was to make a quick trip back home to bring back anything else I needed or wanted for household, educational, or entertainment supplies.

Once the last of the previous teachers had left, I moved into the 2LDK apartment that ASTEP had reserved for the teachers. The 2 is the number of bedrooms, in this case; Japanese style rooms with Tatami (woven rice straw) mats as flooring. L stands for living room, with a wooden floor; this was big enough to have been another bedroom with less closet space. D stands for dining area and K stands for kitchen/kitchenette. I believe the rent was 55,000 yen per month, of which two teachers were supposed to be paying 25,000 and ASTEP was covering the remaining 5,000.

After a month or two we had another teacher from the Ukraine Peninsula join who was to be my housemate. He had a 3 year linguist degree and spoke about 10 languages but turned out to be a bit of a spoiled brat and a cheapskate so after a few months of putting up with him I found a 2DK that was a little further outside of town for 30,000 yen per month, with a deposit and gratuity fee equivalent to first and last month’s rent, and left him with the full rent. I found out later that he went to the apartment manager/owner and tried to haggle down the price of the rent since he was the only  one staying there. The man was so offended by that haggling that he almost kicked my coworker out and was going to refuse to rent it to ASTEP ever again.

My Shirakoshi Mansion apartment was pretty nice. In Japan, a mansion refers to a flat apartment, usually with no furniture or appliances provided. I picked up a washing machine, inductive heating cooking unit, electric toaster/microwave oven combo unit, a water heating pot, rice cooker, and a hot air dish drier.

          

The bath was of a cheaper Japanese style with a stainless steel frame and no insulation. It had a gas heating unit attached that could also reheat the water in the tub, but unfortunately the re-circulation pump was broken.

  

There are about three features for Japanese toilets that I hadn’t seen in America. On the expensive side, there are toilets lids that have a bidet wand to wash your seat. Some of them warm the seat and even warm the water, which can be helpful in Winter time. On the inexpensive side, there are traditional Japanese styles that look like a oversized ceramic slipper set into the floor or a raised boxed area to house the plumbing. The flat area catches solids without splashing and the domed area reduces the splash-back of liquids as you squat in place. In between these in price is one with a spigot above the tank that runs when flushed and can be useful for rinsing fingers. The last one is the type my apartment had.

  

A couple of blocks from the apartment complex there were a couple of bamboo groves, one of arrow bamboo and a larger one of timber bamboo. I had many opportunities to harvest it, drag it back to the apartment, and cut it to size, splitting and lashing it to make a variety of crafts, tools, and practice weapons. In the Spring I harvested shoots for food. One went from one foot to seven feet tall in about 30 hours. During the shooting season it’s the fastest growing grass in the world, though some species can get even bigger.

ASTEP had a number of classrooms around the island for English conversation classes in the afternoons using the “let’s Go” series of books and teaching materials. They also had contracts with many of the elementary schools around the island to provide a native speaker at least one day per week. Some of the areas I was assigned to were Yagi, Mihara, and Nushima.

Mihara was once famous for it’s puppetry. Maybe it will be again?

Yagi is near Mihara and pretty centrally located on the the island, so they sometimes had cultural events including performers from Mihara. I got to observe a graduation ceremony for the kids going to middle school while I was there.

Nushima (literally swamp island) is actually another smaller island with a semicircle shape. Apparent it was once known as Hirako Shima (leach island) and was mentioned alongside Awaji as the first children of Inazagi and Inazami in Japan’s creation myth. There is a shrine in the center of the island in celebration of that. There are also a pair of giant boulders of the east side that are thought to represent a god and goddess.

There is a similar, but much larger, shrine in Ichinomiya called Izanagi Jingu.

We also had the Sumoto Nurses School that needed help with a medical English class for communicating with foreign patients. As the only member of the team with a medical background that was my job.

When we had long breaks I would go on trips. One time I rode my bicycle across Shikoku, took the ferry from Yawatahama to the port near Oita, and took a train to Fukuoka. I might have planned it differently if I had known that Shikoku’s elevation went up as you went south and it’s all uphill!

Another time the boss rented me the company car and I drove to Iga-Ueno in Mie Prefecture. Almost the entire town is Ninja themed these days, even the trains! I didn’t take any selfies as usual, but I took lot’s of photos of everything else.

I actually wound up being instrumental in a change to the English teaching policies on Awaji. One of the elementary schools, asked me to prepare a spelling lesson and teach it to the fourth graders after a month, and ASTEP’s company policy is to not do spelling. Apparently the local policy of many of the schools is to introduce Kanji in third grade and  Romaji (Roman derived Alphabet) in fourth, though the national Education Board (Monbusho) doesn’t support this. I checked with the boss and since it was a request from the school he agreed to have me do it.

First I drew CAT, all in uppercase letters, on the board. Asking the kids what that spelled, the response was C-A-T, letter for letter. I took the time to explain the different pronunciations for each letter and helped them sound it out when one little girl exclaimed catto! I asked her “cat wa nani?” (what is a cat?) and she correctly answered “neko”, drawing gasps from the rest of the class. One boy piped in “so iu tsukai kata” (that’s how you use it).

Next was dog, in lower case letters. Again they pronounced it D-O-G, letter for letter. Again I broke it down and helped them sound it out until someone who knew dog was “inu” piped in.  After that was bed and deb (debu is actually a Japanese word for for a fat person so that got a lagh) so they could easily remember the lower case b and d. Last we went over all the three letter -at words, teaching the spelling rule of similar endings having similar pronunciation.

For the second half of the class, we split the kids into four4 or five teams and had a spelling contest. One kid at a time from each team went to the board to write the word they were given. The teams that got it right got a point and all of them enjoyed the game.

During the second half of the lesson, my boss and his manager showed up to do a surprise inspection, filming the lesson. Apparently he had forgotten that this was the day of the spelling lesson so he was very surprised, even more so about how well it went. Apparently using the board and explaining using Japanese were also on the list of things he forgot to tell me not to do, but since it went so well it was fine. He also gave me some advice on making the game more exciting.

The next year two more schools were asking me for spelling lessons, and during my last Spring there five schools including one; Ichi; that decided to make the spelling class a weekly event, teach spelling rules in between lessons with the native speaker, and start teaching the younger classes as well. At a meeting of all the schools on the island, they were proposing this method, and it seemed to be well received.

During all this time, naturally I wasn’t sitting idle in my free time. I kept studying Kanji up through the sixth grade level and beyond and reading books of increasing difficulty, and even took a course in Thai massage in Sannomiya. I found lots of books and videos by Soke Hatsumi in the local bookstores, translated them and practiced in my apartment, in the bamboo groves, and whenever I had time and space. Interestingly, in all of Soke’s books and videos, he says he’s offering them to all martial artists, regardless of style or level, to study and teach from, basically giving full and almost free license to everyone. I read somewhere that he estimates he has published ~90% of the information he inherited, and isn’t sure if the rest is of any value.

 

Most Japanese hearing the name Hatsumi assume it’s not the family name and that your talking about a woman’s name. The reason for that was mentioned in both one of his English books and one of the Japanese. Apparently he was having lots of bad luck in his youth and a numerology analysis showed his name was the source of the problem, so an uncle suggested he change the pronunciation.

I found some articles questioning the validity of the Bujinkan’s heritage. Suggesting that additional headmaster names had been added to the list to make the Togakure Ryu seem older than it is, and various other claims that may or may not have been true. I also found articles about the Japanese government cracking down on the Ryu-Ha based schools that weren’t teaching the skills that they were known for, but rather seemed to be selling an association with their legendary founders like some kind of pyramid scheme.

I also found listings for Bujinkan Instructors in Osaka and Kobe. I was already going to Amagasaki once per month to stock up on things from Costco and shopping every few weeks in Sannomiya, so I trained with Hirai Sensei in Kobe.

At the time he was a Nidan (again somebody teaching without a full teaching rank). His main job was a sailor so he was only doing classes a few days each week, and he didn’t have his own place so he was teaching at the local sports center, renting a room (either hardwood or padded depending on what was available) for two hours at a time. Most of the classes were practicing rolls, Kihon Happo, San Shin No Kata, and sword evasion drills (way too easy for me), and an occasional new technique from one of Soke Hatsumi’s books. Sometimes we would go over to the Osaka Dojo and train with the Shihan over there for a special event. (These days he lists himself as a Juudan of the Bujinkan as well as a sinew straightener and tendon puller.)

One of his senior students was complaining about how the Western students kept using brute force to make the joint locks from the Torite No Goho (“5 principles for taking the hand”, part of the Kihon Happo) and that wasn’t in line with the “use the enemy’s strength against them” philosophy (basically it’s supposed to be a soft style like Aikido or Tai Chi) of Gyokko Ryu (Ball and Tiger or to use the more common Chinese translation, Jade Tiger). A quick look at the differences between the English in “Unarmed Fighting Techniques of the Samurai” which Soke had recently published, and the Japanese manuscript revealed part of the problem. The Japanese text says to grab the forearm while the English says to grab the wrist which causes more pain but allows more arm movement. The text explains the basics for the unarmed techniques from six of the Ryu-Ha. At the end his video on Koto Ryu Koppojutsu, Soke explained that the Gikan Ryu and Gyokushin Ryu basically used the same techniques but the angles on their postures were different as dictated by the working environment they were used in, and based on Van Donk’s “An Introductory History To The Schools Of The Bujinkan”; one might conclude that these other two may have branched off from the earlier school due to issues over succession; or due to the necessities of a mission. In the Togakure Ryu video and in some of the books, he mentioned that Kumogakure Ryu applied variations on Togakure’s techniques using pyrotechnics for distractions.

It was observed that my skill and knowledge were well above the average Shodan, but there was another guy who had joined shortly before I had who wasn’t at that level and they wanted to advance him first as my Sempai (senior/elder student). Later, as the other guy kept skipping class, Hirai Sensei decided he wasn’t going to worry about that and promised to award me a black belt before I went back to America. I gave him my family’s address just in case.

When a Taikai was coming up in Tokyo, he and his head student were considering taking the Godan test. The Bujunkan Godan test comes from the Togakure Ryu (hidden door style) and Kumogakure Ryu (cloud hiding style), and consists of detecting Sakki (killer/harmful intentions) in time to dodge a sword cut from behind. They were worried about whether they could pass but, I reached that level of sensitivity back in Junior High, and taught everyone a few meditation and energy sensing techniques. By the end of the two hour class, even a couple of former Judo practitioners who had only taken two hours of Bujinkan training with us the prior week were able to sense the moment of the cut and get out of the way. Hirai Sensei passed his test with no problem and came back as a Shidoshi.

In the Fall of 2008, my aunt passed away. My mother and grandparents were an emotional wrecks. The body was cremated and the memorial service was going to be held in a few months. Her things had to be moved and there were already a few generations worth of belongings from other family members that had passed away at the farm that needed to be organized. It was a mess that was going to take a long time to sort out. So, I gave my boss and Hirai Sensei two months notice (standard practice for business in Japan, though not everybody follows this). Unfortunately Hirai Sensei didn’t fulfill his promise to award me a black belt before I left. Many Japanese would consider that kind of broken promise a mortal insult but, oh well, it’s just another disappointment.

In 2010 things were stable enough with the family in Texas that I headed back to Japan, this time to Osaka. A college buddy’s mother had a friend that lived there and he thought that connection could help me get set up. Unfortunately he waited till the last minute to let her know and she only got around to talking to them the day before I left, so there wasn’t nearly enough communication. They let me stay at their place for one night and sent me on my way, wasting bus fare both ways to Ibaraki (thorn tree) city. I stayed at a capsule hotel for the next few days while searching for the cheapest rent in Osaka.

The cheapest I found was called Naniwa (waving flowers or difficult wave, an old name for Osaka) Minami (south) Downtown Hostel, located in the second sub-block of the second Tenkachaya (lit the world’s/country’s tea shop) in the Nishinari (Westernizing) district of Osaka City, and was run by a company called Trucks. There are four floors with bedrooms and restrooms on each floor. On the first floor there is a kitchenette, common area with a television, two laundry and bathing rooms. Also there is a similar building next door. A few were Japanese but most of the residents were from Taiwan, with a few from mainland China or Hong Kong. Every now and then there was someone else from the Americas or Europe.

The sheer number of homeless people in the area was amazing. The nearby parks was filled with the tents and temporary shacks of the homeless camps. At the same time, several blocks away, near Tennoji station, there was new construction going on for a huge shopping complex. Japan’s homeless are some of the most industrious in the world. Many were gathering electronics and CD’s or DVD’s that had been thrown out and cleaned them up. On the weekends there was a street market as they sold them.

Walking around ten to twenty minutes north of Tennoji station will put you at the southern end of Nippon Bashi, a long shopping street that winds north through the middle of Osaka city. The southern end is the Denden Town, full of electronics and computer shops, as well as anime; manga; and figurine shops. Further north you can find book stores, clothing stores, household stores, and much more.

I picked up a couple of massage jobs in the underground shopping center near Osaka Station to make ends meet, worked part time as an assistant instructor at the Minami international school for a while, and tried to get a functional business set up. At one point I was selling homemade cookies by bicycle as the economy was sinking and jobs were getting scarce.

At the same time I was reading college textbooks to improve my Japanese even more, including “NLP No Riron” by Chiba Ace, and translating Soke Hatsumi’s books and videos for my notes as the existing English versions had a lot of errors and even untranslated words that I had to look at the Japanese character and research online from historical and cultural references. Once I finished my notes, at a friend’s suggestion, I started working on formatting and illustrating them for possible publishing.

In a few of his books Soke Hatsumi talks about how he’s not choosing a successor, but rather giving his art to the world. He’s not going to lend his name or organization to anyone, but instead as a type of lions pride ritual of succession, is having everyone survive on their own merits. He says he often must scold students for not doing independent study and training outside of the Dojo.

When the 2011 tidal wave wiped out some of the east coast north of Tokyo, I had a week left on my Visa and little chance of getting enough work to sponsor a renewal, I decided to spend my last week helping out with the relief effort around Ishinomaki. Cleaning up, tossing moldy clothing, and whatever else the homeowners wanted help with for a few days, and then doing massage for some of the survivors that were staying at the local gymnasium.

On the train ride back to Osaka, some of the Japanese high school students were very impressed that foreigners would actually go over there to lend a hand. One swore he would go overseas and help others in disaster situations when he got older.

After I got back to Texas, I got finished formatting and illustrating my notes and had them published. It wound up being way too thick so I broke it down into smaller volumes. Every so often I do corrections and revisions. About a year after publishing the first book I received an envelope addressed from the Hombu Dojo in Tokyo with three Menkyo certificates. There was no letter of explanation but the handwriting resembled some of Soke Hatsumi’s calligraphy books and the Hanko Inkan (signature stamp) looked like some I saw on other Bujinkan certificates I spotted online. Was this Itazura (mischief), acknowledgement, or a belated attempt at keeping a promice? It didn’t matter, I had received what I needed from Japan, and I’m not talking about Menkyo certificates.

Since then I’ve been trying to get a training group together. I started going to various parks around the Austin area and working out for two hours at a time, talking to whoever was brave enough to ask questions. If I did the same park everyday, I would need to get a vendor’s permit from the city, and if our group ever got as big as sixty people we would need an event permit.

Unfortunately the group never got bigger than a few students at a time that were willing to brave the elements and work for two whole hours at a time. In order to draw more attention, and for my own training I started making a mannequin out of bamboo that grows wild in some of the parks. In Koto Ryu, it’s recommended that you pad a post or tree with bundles of grass and wrap that with cloth (you could also use a Makiwara (rope wrapped board/post) for conditioning your fists and striking surfaces, and and make a mannequin to practice grappling and throws, so you don’t injure your training partners. You could also take it to the next level and make your own rope and twine (which I have done before) and even weave your own cloth (which I’ve seen done but haven’t done myself, yet…). I went to the extreme and did every bone and muscle, down to the individual vertebrae. Some people were freaked out thinking it was a zombie or a dead body while others were fascinated, including the head of the Texas Bamboo Society who happened to be attending a seminar near the park I was working at. She insisted I bring the bamboo-sapien to the Texas bamboo festival. I rigged up a stand out of 2×4″ pine lumber and set up a counterweight system to keep him standing. I did a short demonstration toward the end and got lots of applause for flipping him with Kou Yoku. I wish someone had gotten a video of it and sent it to me.

Of the students that actually stuck it out for more than a month, one turned out to be a homeless guy, and another was a kid whose parents had kept him from doing any kind of exercise; even P.E. class; for about ten years after he had been diagnosed with scoliosis. His aunt had encouraged them to at least let him take martial arts for self defense, and he had no interest in the competitiveness and ego bashing in sports style, so he liked my practical approach. After about a month of class once per week, he was getting his rolls down, standing a bit straighter, and could at least remember and perform the movements for the Kihon Happo and Sanshin No Kata.

Check out his profile on Facebook! Once I got a place of my own with a living room big enough for six people to train, I started working out of my house and doing one hour classes. At the suggestion of the Bamboo society I’ve been helping people who have bamboo in their yards get it cleaned up or removed as a morning job, so I have plenty of bamboo for craft and construction projects. Now I am using a place that’s a few blocks from Round Rock High School that has room for about 8-9 students at a time and am doing an afternoon and an evening class five days per week. If we get enough paying students, the next location will probably be in a shopping center space with more room.

Recently some people claiming to be from the Bujinkan Dojo Association have been trolling my website and Facebook page, claiming the Menkyou I received to to be fakes, and badmouthing every picture and video I have posted. I considered filing a legal actions but they may actually believe their claims, and all the traffic they generate is actually helping to increase my reach and I can always delete their posts and ban them when they get annoying. That being said, if they actually believe in the philosophy of Soke Takamatsu as passed down by Soke Hatsumi, rather than violating Community Terms of Service Agreements by leaving reviews on Yelp and Google for a business they have never been a paying customer for (as soon as I report it those reviews get taken down), if they feel that strongly about it they should put themselves at risk and test their assumptions. That being said, as I have concerns about the Bujinkan being persecuted as a pyramid organization, along with anyone connected with them, so I have no problem with putting away my certificates and removing them from my Facebook and Web pages.

As for my pictures and videos, I don’t have nearly enough and they aren’t professionally done. That’s hardly surprising on a shoestring budget with no staff. Perhaps some video-grapher with some cooperative friends or family would be willing to work in exchange for lessons? This warrior’s journey isn’t exactly over yet.